space solar power

Harvesting solar power from space through orbiting solar farms sounds extremely interesting. Mitsubishi Electric Corp., a manufacturer of solar panels, has decided to join an AUD $25 billion Japanese project to construct a massive solar farm in space within three decades.

Japan has already started working towards achieving its goal by developing a technology for 1-gigawatt solar farm, which would include four square kilometers of solar panels that will be stationed 36,000 kilometers above the earth’s surface. The one gigawatt of energy that will be produced by the solar farm would be enough to supply power to nearly 294,000 average Tokyo homes.

Before the project is set to install, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), leaders of the project, will launch a small satellite consisting of solar panels in 2015. This launch will be to test beam energy from space. Working on these lines, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), a division of JAXA has successfully designed a model of the SPS200, a 10-megawatt demonstration solar-power satellite. Apart from the satellite, ISAS is working on an experimental satellite plan that will provide wireless power supply of several hundred kilowatts.

A lot of experimentation is on in order to scrutinize the influence of high-voltage discharge necessary for large-capacity power generation in space and the impact of space debris.